Harmony
“That is where my dearest and brightest dreams have ranged — to hear for the duration of a heartbeat the universe and the totality of life in its mysterious, innate harmony.” Herman Hesse
Last year, I invited you to start 2023 with a meditation to find your lodestar, a guiding light or heart’s wish. I discovered that my heart’s wish is harmony. And I have continued exploring this over the past year.
What can we learn from a Buddhist approach to harmony?
Buddhist teacher and scholar Andrew Olendzki says the underlying cause of conflict isn’t an enemy or adverse conditions—it’s a ‘thorn lodged within our own heart and mind’. Buddhism is inward rather than outward. It identifies conflicts rooted in anger and others in resentment, hatred, attachment to views, and so forth. The antidotes all have to do with neutralising or transforming these inner causes of conflict and replacing them with more positive or healthy mind states.
Buddhism teaches us about the importance of listening and communicating well with others and of listening and observing our own thoughts and mental processes so we can be more calm and creative with our responses and less reactive; to be more skilful. This is not about suppressing our emotional worlds, but not succumbing to their power over us.
We need to safeguard the quality of our heart and mind.
Fear is born from arming oneself.
Just see how people are fighting!
I’ll tell you of the anxious dread
that caused me to shake all over:
Seeing creatures flopping around,
like fishes in shallow water,
so hostile to one another!
—seeing this, I became afraid.
This world completely lacks essence;
it trembles in all directions.
I longed to find myself a place
unscathed—but I could not see one.
Seeing people locked in conflict,
I became completely distraught...
But then I discerned here a thorn,
hard to see, lodged deep in the heart
- Attakavagga Sutta, Sutta Nipata
If you want to explore more I suggest this course from Tricyle
What we can learn from Japanese concept of Wa or Harmony?
In Japanese society harmony is integral. Wa 和 Harmony - is the aesthetic and core value that drives Japanese society; shaped by a rich history and deep traditions, harmony informs all aspects of Japanese law and customs. Wa evolved from a social contract to a fundamental value in Japanese society. It is present in all interactions, and there is a strong cultural tendency towards conflict avoidance. It is understood that rising above one’s personal feelings for the good of society as a whole is its own virtue.
Harmony permeates religion and cultural actives in Japan. For example, Wa is one of the four principles in the Japanese tea ceremony. Coexisting in harmony with nature is intrinsic to Shintoism. Laws, rules, customs and manners are imbued with Wa.
Wa emphasises creating and maintaining a harmonious relationship with others through reciprocity and fulfilment of social obligations. Children from a young age learn the importance of belonging to a community and to practice empathy. They are taught that if each individual understands their personal obligations in the group and empathises with the situation of others, then the group as a whole succeeds.
What can we learn from harmony in music?
Music, with its ethereal beauty and captivating melodies, has long fascinated humanity. Harmony is a word that is essentially synonymous with music itself. Harmony is the sound created when two or more sounds of different pitches are played at the same time. It is the aspect of music that makes it feel rich and full. The harmony of music is built to complement the melody. It’s relational and it has cause and effect because it can give rise to different responses and emotions in the listener.
Although I work in the music world I am not a musician1, but what I take from this very basic definition of harmony is that music is relational and affective, it influences our inner world. In order to create harmony we need to listen carefully and practice.
What can we learn from harmony and physics?
Physics and music are two fields that may seem very different, but they have some interesting connections. Both are based on mathematics, patterns, harmony, and creativity.
Harmony of the spheres (or Music of the Spheres: Musica Unniversalis) is a philosphical and cosmological concept that regards proportions in the movements of celestial bodies – the Sun, Moon, and planets – as a form of music (not audible but harmonic, mathematical even sacred concept). The theory, originating in ancient Greece, was a tenet of Pythagoreanism, and was later developed by 16th-century astronomer Johannes Kepler. Kepler did not believe this "music" to be audible, but felt that it could nevertheless be heard by the soul. The idea continued to appeal to scholars until the end of the Renaissance, influencing many schools of thought.
There is a beautiful exploration here.
Harmony as an earth system
The Gaia theory proposes that living organisms interact with their inorganic surroundings on Earth to form self-regulating, complex system that helps to maintain and perpetuate the conditions for life on the planet. In other words in-built harmony.
The Gaia hypothesis was formulated by the chemist James Lovelock and co-developed by the microbiologist Lynn Margulis in the 1970s, following the suggestion by his neighbour, novelist William Golding, Lovelock named the hypothesis after Gaia, the primordial deity who personified the Earth in Greek mythology.
Harmony as a heart’s wish
Taking all these perspectives there seems to be an innate need for inner harmony to to be more aligned and at ease with the flow of life; a longing for relational harmony, to be more understanding and compassionate with those around us who are also dealing with their own mental states and what life throws at them and an orientation for universal harmony that is at one with nature and the wider world.
In order for me to truly experience harmony all three of these must be present and balanced.
Next time: a meditation on harmony for paid subscribers and the following week a creative prompt. If you are a fee subscriber you will hear from me at the end of the month with Scintialla my regular round up of cultural goodies.
About me: I am a western Buddhist in the Triratna tradition and have been practising since 1986. I have a love and admiration for the simplicity and beauty of Japanese culture and aesthetics which appeals to my zen minded being. I am also a mindfulness and movement teacher, writer, and creative health professional.
I really enjoyed this!